Page 77 of When Hearts Unravel

My body moves before my mind catches up. I quickly strip off my clothes until I’m only clad in my bra and panties.

Without hesitating, I hurl myself off the cliff and pinch my nose as I cannonball into the frigid water. Icy shards stab my body, but I hold my breath as the ocean envelops me.

Holy shit, that’s cold.

As soon as I get my bearings straight, I swim toward the light, breaking the surface.

I draw in an inhale and yell, “Rex? Where are you, Rex?”

There are no signs of him.

I dive back underwater, trying to locate the maddening man. Out of nowhere, strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me upward until we come up for air.

His low laughter reaches my ears.

Thedevil.

I grab his forearms and try to spin around to give him a piece of my mind. But he easily overpowers me and cinches me tighter against him.

Against his mostly naked body.

The sensations of his skin against mine throw me straight back to that day in Mykonos when he rescued me inside the caves.

But this time, he isn’t the siren, Calliope, or Poseidon, the violent god punishing me for disturbing the peace. He’s the most irresistible version of himself.

The charming, sincere, boyish daredevil I’ve seen snippets of only when he’s around his family.

“Worried about me, aren’t you, little Olive?”

Between the adrenaline rush, the fear, the relief, and that dastardly sexy rasp in my ear, my body lights up like the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. My nipples tighten, goosebumps prickling all over my skin.

“Youasshole,” I seethe, but the words don’t hold venom.

Instead, I smile, my chest twitching as I try to hold in laughter.

“Let it out. You know you had fun, you naughty, bewitching rule breaker.”

Bewitching.He called me bewitching again, and this time, he means it.

He presses his lips against my ear. “You’re afraid of heights and you jumped. I’m so fucking proud of you.”

My heart careens out of control.

Bubbles form in my chest and I relive the past few moments.

The rush when I dove off the cliff, the feeling of suspending between life and death, of pushing myself past my limits.

The absolute high.

And I did that—jumped off a freakin’ cliff in a foreign country!

I lose my battle. The snort becomes a giggle, which quickly morphs into a full-body laughing fritz.

He joins me. The sound of his happiness, as beautiful as anything I’ve ever heard, makes my body warm all over.

Hot to the touch.

I turn around and this time, he lets me.